Hey, sis. Welcome back. You're tuned in to Sis Mind Your Money, the podcast where we talk all things money, wealth, and financial freedom without the confusion and without the judgment. I'm your host, Bridgett Dickey, wealth educator and strategist, founder of Dickey Financial Services and Wealth Management Firm, and the creator of Girl Mind Your Money movement. My mission is simple, to educate, empower, and equip women like you to take control of your finances and build real, lasting wealth. So grab your favorite drink, get comfortable, and let's get into it. So I'm so excited because the topic I'm come- talking with you this Friday is all about debt and investing. Most often what I learned is that a lot of people are drowning in debt. They are drowning in debt. They are not happy with their life. They are living with large amounts of credit card debt, loans, you name it. And so they don't know what to do, right? And most often what I find out that people are having a lifestyle that they're trying to, I gotta use the credit card to buy food and do all these things." And it's the big thing is, "Do I invest? I wanna invest, but I got all this debt. What do I do?" So one thing I've learned, and I tell my clients all the time, numbers don't lie. They don't. Black and white numbers don't lie, and it's just the truth. But looking at what should you be doing, and this is the biggest thing that most people struggle with. When people hire me and come to me, the first thing I'm looking at is your financial picture. What's going on with you? What, do you have debt, credit? You know, all the things. I'm looking at all the components of your life, insurance, estate planning. I'm looking at everything. And debt is the number one thing. The number one thing. It is. It is the number one thing I deal with. And so one thing I have learned is that what do you do, right? It's like, "I don't know. I wanna be able to have this certain lifestyle. I wanna be able to do things," but what do you do? If I'm drowning in debt, I'm paying $1,000, $2,000 here just in debt payments every month how do I get out of this, this cycle? And that's the biggest thing. So if you had a extra $500 a month, what do you do with it? Do you do option A? Do you pay off your $10,000 credit card debt faster, or do you invest the $500? And so one thing I also do, this'll be like a little, a little treat. I'm giving you a little prelude to next week. How do you build the lifestyle you want? And that will help you with figuring out how do you invest, what are you doing? But you need to know your lifestyle. Do you know your number? If it's a particular lifestyle you want to have, do you know that number? So definitely join me for next week and I can show you more about how that works, okay? So what do you do? I wanna know from you. Is it option A or option B? Which one do you do? Do you put more money into, do you invest? Do you pay the credit cards off? Like, what do you think? Put it in the chat. Is it option A, option B? Pay off your $10,000 credit card debt. Option B, invest the 500 into your future I want to know in the chat, what do you think it is? So some of you may be surprised. So I hear one says A, A or option B. So look, option A, let's talk about it. So what should you do? Is it option A, option B? So if we do option A, right, if you invest 500 a month for 18 years, you'll have $236,000. Now, the key is to pay the debt off sooner than later But do you see why you need to learn how to do both? Now, if you just paying the minimum of just the credit card debt. So if you got about 10,000 in credit card debt, you're looking at probably about a $500 payment a month, right? But we know that whole 500 doesn't go towards the principal. So just to do simple math, you pay 500, 200 gonna go to interest, and 300 is going to go towards the principal. So really, you're not paying it 100% off In order for you to pay it off completely and avoid all the interest, you need to be paying $1,000 a month, and say you're gonna try to pay this off in a year or six months, however you gonna do it. But that's what it is, it's paying a minimum, but also you need to be investing. It's doing both. So is it, what do you need to be doing to make some extra money? What do you need to cut back on? I'm gonna say this very loosely. It's so much you can cut back on. It's so much you can cut back on. I'm from the South, and we always say you can't take love from a turnip, right? It's so much you can do with cutting back and budgeting. So I tell my ladies, what, I tell my ladies, "What lifestyle do you wanna live? What do you wanna have?" So does it require you to do more to increase your income? What do you need to do? That gift you have, do you know how to bake, cook, sew? What are these side hustles or businesses that you should be focusing on that's gonna allow you to start bringing in an extra 500 a month? I'll give you something. Anytime people would invite me to their homes or say, "Bridgett, I want you to, come over to the house. I'm having a party," or whatever it is, or if it's someone's birthday, I would give them... I love my, one of my hobbies is making body scrub. So I started gifting everybody these body scrubs. If I'll give a host gift, or if I had something at my home, people come over and they leave with a gift. And normally it was a body scrub. So I, that's just what I did. It was my pastime, I loved it, and 100% natural. That's what I did. So one time I gave a girlfriend of mine a jar of the body scrub. I can't rem- oh, it was, I had something at my house for Christmas, during the holidays, and I gave it to her. Couple of days later, she text me back and said, Bridgett, can you make 10 of these? I'm having an event and I wanna give these as gifts for the people coming to my event." And I was like, "Oh yeah, I can do it." I didn't, I, at that point, I didn't have a name. I ca- I didn't know any of that. She was like, how much will they be?" Because I'm numbers girl. I came up, "Oh, it'll be, for 10 jars it'll be $150." "Oh, okay." At my house, I made $150. Met up with her, gave her... Oh, came up with a name, had the labels, went and bought the labels at Office Depot, came up with a name. Because I already had a LLC, I went and set up a DBA that fast and put it under my LLC, and people started paying me. One of my girlfriends, she gave it to somebody at her job. He liked the body scrub. He would buy body scrub from me all the time. What is your love, your what you know how to do? People will pay for your gifts, but it's just figuring out a way. It's so many ways to make money today. It's so many ways that you can do things online. I want you to focus on whatever you need to do to invest $500 a month. Can you invest $1,000 a month into yourself? But what happens is you get so caught up in the debt, and the debt is just overshadowing, and it's drowning you, and you just can't see. That's what the problem is, but I need you to be able to do both. Pay this debt down, but if you start bringing in the extra 500,000, $600, $200, that will help you figure this out. And keep on doing it. Women are living longer. I have a client that's 73. Mom is 100... just passed away and was 105 last year. You gotta make sure you gonna have enough money to last you but you will actually do both. So that requires you, when you start looking at before you charge that credit card for something, did I invest my $500 into my re- investment account or whatever accounts you have set up? Did I invest first before you purch- or before you decide to say, "I'm gonna do debt"? Cause it's so easy with that credit card. I wanna travel, I wanna do the thing, but did you pay yourself first? Did you invest in you first? So that's what I want you to focus on, okay? So look at it. It's all about compound interest. It's just the power of just adding on top of it. Just keep doing it. If you have a grandbaby, you got children that just were born, th- that's why when you do them when you're young, so by the time you get older, because you've been consistently doing it... I wish someone would have shared with me, 'cause they didn't, when I was first starting my job. So I would say at the age and when you can start putting money back for investments, some of them don't allow you to do it till you're like 21, but I wish somebody at 18 would've said, "Just keep putting back $200 a month without fail, no matter what." By the time, if you was at 20, and I'm 48 now, if I did the math, if at 18 and then now at 40, if I would've kept putting them $200 away every month, I would You know how much money? Let's talk about how much money would I've had. If I told you, if I would've done 500, if I just would've done 200, I at least probably right now would have about 250,300 in one retirement account. But it's like when no one told you that, then at that age, they just telling you to have fun, go to college, take out student loan debt. No one was preparing us as you get older. So now you, it takes you, now you gotta put in more money 'cause you're older. But these are the things I want you to start doing now. Now, I'm gonna tell you right now, it's never too late, and I think a lot of times we think it's too late. It is never too late. Why it's never too late? A lot of times we're thinking, "Oh, it's too late for me. I don't have time." Real estate will be one of your avenues to help you get out that situation. It's just that having the faith and start making certain investments and getting you together so you can live the life you want. But are you willing to be in a room and do the hard work? It's going to pay off. It's aligning yourself with the right people. But I think a lot of time as you get older, you feel like, "Oh, it's too late. I'm in my 60s, I'm in my 70s." I know a gentleman right now, I know a woman right now that's in her 70s buying her second business, and they'd started later in life. But it's the mindset of the person. We all know who Colonel Sanders is. Colonel Sanders started frying chicken at 65 because Social Security was not paying him enough money and so one thing he said, and this was in the '40s. He said, let me start frying chicken." He didn't die until he was 85. So now, by him frying chicken, open up all these franchises. He started at 65. It's never too late. It's never too late. So let's talk about should I start investing in crypto? This is a great question. Yes, you should, but you need to make sure before you start investing in crypto, 'cause I did it. I went and took all the classes, learned the stuff, educated myself, got around people who did very well with crypto so they can tell me the right, wrong ways to doing it. But you need to make sure you have a solid foundation set up. You need to make sure you have an emergency fund, you have your debt under control, and you on track for retirement. If you're looking to do crypto, maybe start at 5 or 10%, but don't be taking your money out of your saving or from your retirement account to try to fund crypto. That's not how it work. So you need to make sure you have yourself financially sound, you have a financial plan. If you are behind in your retirement, don't be funding crypto. Crypto is still it's new, but it's not. Crypto is still volatile. It's still a ever-changing world, but is that where the world is going? Absolutely. We have a new president who is invested and did all the things crypto. In other countries right now, you can't even go use a credit card. They use Bitcoin, they're using crypto in order to purchase things. I have crypto, I have my cold wallet, hot wallet, I do all of that stuff. But you need to make sure you have stuff set up first in your financial core before you just start taking money from here and here, and somebody telling you, "Oh, buy this coin, do this." No. My clients don't get into crypto until I make sure we have everything else set up. I will tell you right now, what you can do is educate yourself. I would say that. Learn about it. I need you to learn about it. Don't pay nobody else to do it for you. I need you to learn and understand it for yourself, and that's one thing that I did do. Budgeting. It's so many things out there, do this for budgeting, that. I'ma say automation is your best friend, when it comes to budgeting. Set all your bills up on automation. Why? That's gonna be your accountability partner. But to answer the question, 50% of your money should go to your needs, 30% is wants, and 20 to saving and investing. That's just real life simple math But just as far as budgeting. And also, too, what is your lifestyle? And that goes back to next week, when I'm gonna be talking about in next week, what is the lifestyle that you want? What does that look like? And if you don't know your lifestyle, that's why you're struggling with a budget. And I would say that will be my prelude to next week, really, so make sure you join me next week to understand if you know your lifestyle and what your number is to live the lifestyle you want, then budgeting won't be an issue. Because then your lifestyle, this is what it is, and this is what I'm sticking to, and nothing else. And so that'll help you. One of another questions that I got was, how does RMD work? So that's required minimum distribution. So when you put all this money in 401ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, retirement accounts, the government doesn't allow you to s- let that money sit there. They say, look, at a certain age, which is right now 73, they saying, "You gotta start taking distribution on your money. You just can't let it sit there and keep growing." So they're saying, "Look, this money is sitting here now, you have to start taking monies out." That's what it means. They don't let you, they give you a certain period of time. Now, only reason why most people wouldn't start taking distribution, if they were still working a job, and they're 73 or 75 years old, physically still working, then that's the one area they wouldn't have to worry about saying, taking monies out. Now, this is something where this is a one-on-one conversation. I need to know how much money, where is this money coming from? I- it's tax implications, 'cause now you have to start taking this money. That means now your income goes up. That means you're gonna pay more in taxes. So this is a conversation that we gotta have. But you can't just let your money sit there and let it continue to grow. So that's a one-on-one conversation that we need to talk about, so I would just say definitely schedule time if you need help, if you're at that age or if you have a parent or a grandparent at that age. That's true, that's a lot of planning, because there's certain dates you have to do this by, so that's something that's a one-on-one conversation. One of the other questions I received is, as a nonprofit organization, how can I better secure funding? You are the mouthpiece of your nonprofit. With everything that's going on now with the federal government, they are... a lot of people relied on nonprofits, relied on grants and type of federal funding. I don't know what... things today look real different. Things are not the same. So you are your mouthpiece. What organizations, companies, what sponsors? Do you have somebody that has the gift of gab that can go on your behalf and speak for you and get funding for your nonprofit? There are still grants out there, but it's really, grants, it's like you gotta apply. It's not always a guarantee that you're gonna get the grants. The other way would be fundraising. Sponsorships. You do, I'm going to a gala on, and it's a nonprofit, and so how they're raising money is through in having galas and events. And I was a sponsor, so I put money into it. They had different levels of sponsorships. So it's really getting with different people that know how to do fundraising that can help you grow and bring more visibility to your nonprofit. But it, you're in a area now where things have changed so much because of the government and legislation, and there's certain things they're not just spending money on anymore. So how do you now get the funding? I'll give you one, and most of you may not know this. The greatest nonprofit in the world, who's a billion-dollar nonprofit, is the NFL. The NFL is a nonprofit. They are a 501[3][c] Who are your board of directors? I know a lot of time if you have people on your board, are they paying to be a board of director? I used to do some, areas of nonprofit with helping on the financial side, right? So I knew women who created nonprofits, but I helped them on the financial side. So as far as the funding and working with, get people that got deep pockets that's gonna be on your board. It's really about the association. Are you going to these high-end galas? Do people know about your nonprofit that will pour into your vision? Are you in a room with people who have money? Are you going to the high-end games? So that, that would be my recommendation, is gonna be somebody that would love your vision and would, "Here you go. Here's a million dollars. I support you." So I've seen it done. Okay? Yes, the NFL is a nonprofit. It's just amazing some of the things that... And they been a nonprofit. They have a pension. People get paid. They operate it so you can have a nonprofit and a for-profit within the same. So it's just are you structuring it the right way? Okay? So my question here is just kind of going off of, I'm a parent, and so I have been putting and devoting so much time into learning more about how to be financially successful, how to set myself up, and breaking some of those patterns that, we didn't learn as children, that our parents didn't know to teach us. And so once I have all this established and set up, what can I do to ensure that my child, who's going to, benefit later after I transition, that's gonna make the benefit of all the things that I've set up? How do I ensure that my child's gonna be responsible and understand what to do? This is a great question. So the age that you need to be teaching your child about money and responsibility is age five. Okay. They know at, they understand money at age five. If you can start off early as possible showing them how to spend mon- for a kid, for children, how to spend, save, and give, they will understand it. When you are, do your monthly meetings. When you sit down, you and your spouse or your family, however your dynamic is in your home, you sit down and y'all have y'all monthly meetings every month, and y'all talk about money. You show them how to budget. You are going to the grocery store and understanding how to make gro- like, show them everyday life. How would you use money? How to set up credit. Talk to them. Kids are smarter than they understand it. But if you show them along the way. One thing my dad did with me, my cousin Sharon, shout out to Sharon, she was our tax lady in the family. Sharon had a tax business. And every year, my father would take me to go to Sharon house, and we would sit down and my daddy would get his 1040 done every year by Sharon. And I would sit there with Sharon. She was doing it by hand, 'cause back in the day we did it by pencil and paper. And Sharon would, and she would sh- I would say, "What does this mean?" She would sit there with me and show me. So I understood when I got a job that I had to file my taxes. I wasn't mad or upset, didn't understand why the IRS doing this to me. This just was a part of the process, and I understood that. So when you are teaching, as you are growing and building, and you tell them when you make mistakes. You have to now be the example, 'cause everything they will learn will be from you. So when it's time to set up the estate plan, the will, the trust, everything, you're doing it, you're showing them. You're... Within reason, of course. But that is a part of the process. If you're a business owner, what is the succession plan? If you're saying, "I'm leaving this business to the kids," you need to have that all in writing. They need to understand this is how things are set up. If they see you doing it, and this is just a normal part of the process, then their buy-in is easier. They understand, and they gonna hopefully take what you've taught them and apply it to their life. And so it's really showing them, what happens is, the parents don't wanna come off as, "Well, I'm the parent, I'm the adult," 'cause that's what I get from a lot of my clients. "I don't want my kids to know I don't have it together." That's giving them a false sense of reality. True. Yeah. That's true. So then you setting them up to believe that Mom and Daddy got unlimited amount of money. And life is 100% all well. I think at times we feel like at one point life was all well. I had all the money saved. I had things in investment accounts. And let a illness happen. Let you lose your job. That's what it's there for. When I was, lost two jobs in less than a year, and at that time said husband got cancer. All this happened in less than a year. I had everything set up, though, so it didn't hit us as hard. Now fast-forward, now I'm divorced. Life happened. I think at times we feel like life's not gonna happen to you. But when you set things up and you show your kids the right way, and you're doing it with them, hey, life gonna happen. And that's just, that's what you do. To keep showing your child that life is perfect and we not gonna have issues and problems, that is the wrong message to give them, because they need to know why the importance of, hey, okay, your father lost his job, but because we'd saved all this money, or Mama lost her job and we got sick, but because we put all this stuff in place we gonna be okay. That's what you show them okay Not give them the stress of life because you didn't do your part, so now you mad and upset, and they up here like, "What's going on?" No. Let them know, like, p- people fall, things happen. That's the best thing you can show them on a financial level. And from a human perspective, life will happen. Hopefully that answers your question. Yes, very much. So- Thank you I think it is. I think if you can be more vulnerable- Yeah with your children... I would say the best thing my daddy did for me... Now, I know, just as all of us, we gonna take some stuff to the grave. I know my father took stuff to the grave, but my father was transparent with me. My dad was transparent with certain things in life, and one thing my daddy never did was beat me up for the mistakes I made. 'Cause he said, "I know you..." He would tell me this all the time, "I know you over there beating yourself up, about to lose your mind." He said, "That's not my job." He said, "My job is to tell you it's gonna be okay." And that's all he would say to me. He would never throw salt in the wound and, "Oh my God, why did you..." He never would do that. But he was transparent at certain parts of his life. "Baby, I... You know how many times I done messed up? You know how many times I didn't know to do this?" He showed me more of that. Yeah. That made me say, "Okay, when life happens, and I know it will, I can handle it." So know everything that you're going through right now, all of you ladies, everything that you're going through right now is because you asked for it. We ask for better, for greater. We want better lives. We want this. We want that. But then when life happens, we like, "Why is this happening to me?" Because you asked for it. In order for you to be great, in order for you to go to the levels that you wanna go to, you gonna have to go through some things. You gonna have to go through heartbreaks, financial strain, in order for you to get to where you need to be. And that's a wrap, sis. Thank you for tuning in to Sis Mind Your Money. I pray today's episode give you something real to work with. I'm Bridgett Dickey, your wealth educator and strategist, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Until then, go mind your money, sis. Before you go, think of one girlfriend who needs to hear this episode and send it to her right now. Text it, post it, tag me, just share it. We're building this community one sis at a time.